Ukraine announced “unprecedented” power cuts on Friday affecting a total of four million people, particularly in the kyiv region, as Ukrainian energy facilities have been heavily damaged by numerous Russian strikes in recent weeks.
Russia, for its part, announced that it had completed the mobilization of 300,000 reservists in more than a month, of which 41,000 are already deployed in Ukraine, a sign of Vladimir Putin’s desire to quickly reverse the trend after a series of setbacks. .
“In many cities and districts of our country, cuts have been introduced to stabilize” the situation, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily address. These restrictions affect “nearly four million Ukrainians”, he added.
“Unfortunately, more severe and longer cuts will be implemented in the coming days,” warned Ukrainian operator DTEK.
Following the recent Russian attacks on electricity infrastructure, the Ukrainian authorities had already had to impose daily power cuts of a few hours in many regions, particularly in the capital kyiv, to avoid blackouts.
On Friday, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, asked his Iranian counterpart to “immediately” stop supplying arms to Moscow, in the first telephone conversation between the two officials since kyiv accused Russia of striking Ukrainian cities using these Shahed 136 drones.
In a statement, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reiterated its denials.
Partial mobilization “accomplished”
In Russia, “the task of recruiting 300,000 people has been accomplished,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Mr. Putin during an exchange broadcast on television.
According to the Minister, 218,000 reservists are being trained in Russian military bases, 41,000 are deployed in military units fighting in Ukraine and 41,000 others are still in training but already in the conflict zone.
For Vladimir Putin, who greeted his minister with “the patriotism” of the soldiers mobilized since September 21, the arrival of these men, who were still civilians a few weeks ago, should make it possible to consolidate the Russian lines against the Ukrainian army which has made significant territorial gains in eastern and southern Ukraine in the past two months.
kyiv’s troops are also preparing to fight a fierce battle to retake the city of Kherson and its surrounding districts (south). Moscow claimed to have evacuated all civilians wishing to leave for Russia or areas under Russian control.
” Very painful “
Illustration of the intensity of the fighting near Kherson, the leader of the Russian republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, whose forces are fighting in Ukraine, announced the death of 23 of his soldiers in a Ukrainian bombardment which also left 58 injured.
Elsewhere on the front, Ukrainian authorities reported Russian shelling that damaged two apartment buildings and a bakery in Mykolaiv, in the south, and injured one person.
To deal with the Russian air attacks, the mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitchko, said on Friday that the army had deployed “new anti-aircraft defense equipment”.
Russia for its part has accused Ukraine for several days of preparing the explosion of a “dirty bomb”, allegations that kyiv and the West have described as “absurd” and which could serve Moscow as a pretext for an escalation.